MSC boosts capacity and switches hubs on South Asia services
MSC is rebooting its hub operations for the ocean trades in and out of South ...
Carriers have announced a wave of suspensions and cancellations on services through the Strait of Hormuz, Maersk upending plans to return to Red Sea sailings, and a multitude of war-risk surcharges or variants imposed.
The Iranian government announced yesterday it had formally closed the Strait of Hormuz following Israeli and US-led attacks against it on Friday, and at the time of writing, CMA CGM, Cosco, HMM, MSC, ONE, OOCL, PIL, and Wan Hai have suspended Middle East cargo bookings, Cosco, MSC, and PIL suspending “high-risk” and Strait of Hormuz sailings, and Evergreen has adjusted in-transit vessels.
MSC said: “As a precautionary measure, MSC has suspended bookings for worldwide cargo to the Middle East region until further notice. Middle East bookings will resume as soon as the security situation improves.”
Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk have been slightly less aggressive in their decision-making, suspending services through Hormuz, but have yet to suspend future bookings, with CMA CGM and Maersk having also rerouted ships away from the Red Sea.
“Due to the deteriorating security situation in the Middle East following the escalating military conflict, we have decided to pause future trans-Suez sailings through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait for the time being,” the Danish carrier said.
“This means Maersk Atlanta has needed to divert to the Cape of Good Hope. All sailings on the ME11 (Middle East-India to Mediterranean) and MECL (Middle East-India to East Coast US) services will be rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope.”
Alongside also routing vessels around Africa, CMA CGM has introduced an ’emergency conflict surcharge’ of $2,000 per teu, $3,000 per feu, and $4,000 per reefer for Gulf transits and Red Sea ports in Egypt, Eritrea, Djibouti, Jordan, Sudan and Saudi Arabia.
Similarly, CU Line and Zhongggu are accepting Red Sea bookings – with CU Lines also accepting Middle East bookings – albeit with surcharges of $2,100-$3,200 in the case of the former, and $1,500-$3,000 for Zhonggu, from 8 March.
Hapag-Lloyd is charging customers a war-risk surcharge of $1,500 per teu and $3,500 per reefer, including containers carrying any special equipment for cargo to and from the Upper Gulf, Arabian Gulf, and Persian Gulf.
According to VesselFinder, the number of ships still transiting the Strait of Hormuz appears significant, but there are indications that containerships are making efforts to get out or to find shelter, with Iran targeting almost all of its neighbours.
Vespucci Maritime CEO Lars Jensen noted: “All container vessels about to transit have now made a u-turn,” identifying 10 box ships to have fled the scene, including three from CMA CGM and the 4,700 teu MSC Mira V and 4,200 teu Maersk Boston.
“We should expect major container vessels with cargo inbound for the Gulf discharge Gulf-bound cargo in Salalah, Khor Fakkan, Sohar, Duqm and Colombo to be transported by smaller vessels willing to transit,” Mr Jensen wrote on LinkedIn.
“This will create port congestion in the mentioned ports, but will also eventually result in problems further out in Asia as carriers at some point cease loading cargo to the Gulf if they are unsure whether it can go the final destination.”
He suggested Port Klang, Singapore, and Tanjung Pelepas transhipment hubs would find themselves dealing with bottlenecks from cargo that would have been sent direct to the Gulf, leading to rapid spot rate rises on Gulf-destined cargo.
One forwarder told The Loadstar they were simply emphasising to clients that the “situation remains volatile”, and that they were working on “potential contingencies” but could not predict how long the situation would continue.
They advised customers: “The landscape keeps changing. The most important thing is to keep communicating with us (freight forwarders) for updates on shipments in transit and to find alternative ways to move their cargo.”
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